Transport for London (TfL) says that each one employees (roughly 30,000 staff) should attend in-person appointments to confirm their identities and reset passwords following a cybersecurity incident disclosed virtually two weeks in the past.
“Resetting 30,000 colleague passwords in particular person will take a while and we will likely be prioritising the allocation of appointments centrally,” TfL mentioned on the TfL worker hub.
“This implies everybody will likely be required to attend an appointment at a specified TfL location to reset their password and be verified in-person for entry to TfL functions and information,” it added.
The identical method was taken by DICK’S Sporting Items’ IT employees after an August cyberattack, manually validating staff’ identities on digicam earlier than permitting them to regain entry to inner methods.
The London public transportation company first knowledgeable the general public on September 2 concerning the cybersecurity breach, assuring clients that there was no proof of compromised information.
Though the assault didn’t have an effect on London’s transportation providers, it disrupted inner methods, on-line providers, and the company’s potential to course of refunds. As of final Friday, TfL employees continued to face outages and system disruptions, impacting their potential to reply to buyer requests and problem refunds for contactless journeys.
This week, an replace on TfL’s incident standing web page revealed that buyer information, together with names, contact particulars, and addresses, had been compromised in the course of the assault.
“Some clients might ask questions concerning the safety of our community and their information. In the beginning, we should reassure that our community is secure,” the transport company added on the TfL worker hub. “Secondly, we’re contacting clients immediately about steps being taken concerning their information.”
TfL additionally confirmed that attackers accessed worker and buyer listing information, together with e-mail addresses, job titles, and worker numbers. Nonetheless, it mentioned there was no proof that different delicate information, comparable to banking particulars, dates of delivery, or house addresses, had been compromised.
Suspect arrested by UK’s Nationwide Crime Company
On Thursday, the UK’s Nationwide Crime Company arrested a 17-year-old Walsall teenager suspected of being related to the cyberattack on town’s public transportation company. {The teenager} was later launched on bail after being questioned by NCA officers.
The NCA additionally arrested a 17-year-old male from Walsall in July for a potential hyperlink to the MGM Resorts ransomware assault. This assault was attributed to the Scattered Spider hacking collective, which acted as an affiliate of the BlackCat ransomware gang.
BleepingComputer requested the NCA if the identical particular person was arrested once more in September however has not but obtained a response.
TfL serves greater than 8.4 million Londoners by way of its floor, underground, and Crossrail (collectively managed with the UK’s Transport Division) transport methods.
In Might 2023, the company skilled one other information breach when the Clop ransomware gang stole information belonging to roughly 13,000 clients from considered one of its suppliers’ MOVEit managed file switch (MFT) servers.